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Post by ganews on Apr 15, 2018 14:13:23 GMT -5
Woo!I know exactly where I was when I heard that Michael Jackson died, but I'm not entirely sure why. I was in my last year of grad school in North Carolina, though I didn't remember which month (July). I know it was a Thursday, because after evening group meeting I had gone to the night pickup game on the turf fields. I was listening to NPR on the drive home, and the death was announced on the 1 am news update just after I turned onto my road. I told Lifemate when I got home, and she was as shocked as I was. Why shocked? Neither of us was a big fan, but we knew the singles. Michael Jackson had been famous as long as we were alive, the King of Pop and no question about it. He had also been controversial for nearly as long, beginning with a weirdness or otherworldliness of a now-grown child star that I knew about from retro exposure to 80s culture; strange PDA on MTV; allegations of child molestation (I remember when the trial outcome was on TV the summer after I finished undergrad in 2005); and finally the mysterious death. No one is going to forget all these things anytime soon. MJ was just spoofed on "Atlanta" a week ago, complete with an explicit mention of his abusive upbringing, almost a decade after death. Yet as I said in my Prince review, Michael Jackson was pretty safe when I was growing up. He might have worked hard to be scary with "Thriller" and bad with "Bad", but this is still the guy who solved gang violence in the "Beat It" video by getting everybody to dance. This is the man who made Captain EO for Disney's EPCOT, which I saw when I was 8 (it was awesome then, awesome now, and I still want a Captain EO rainbow shirt). I didn't even have cable TV growing up, but I remember details from MJ music videos through osmosis if nothing else. I think a Michael Jackson impersonator showed up in a limo to one of my high school football games in the late 90s for some reason. The man had power. Hell, Wifemate even ended up going with someone to see the concert movie "Michael Jackson's This Is It" after he died. But I've never sat and listened to an album. I know all the singles, and I know the occasional deeper cut from indie radio. This is a relatively short discography, but with the inclusion of the two posthumous albums it's a long as Metallica. This review will not be discussing the music videos for the most part except for pre-existing prejudices, so that the music may stand on its own strengths. I will also not be covering the many compilations albums, which vastly outnumber original albums. As I like to do I'll be including running tallies or artist specific quirks, like the number of time James Hetfield laughs or the number of times Prince mentions the word "purple", so if you have any suggestions please chime in. Co-reviewers are also welcome. lineup: Got to Be There (1972) Ben (1972) Music & Me (1973) Forever, Michael (1975) Off the Wall (1979) Thriller (1982) Bad (1987) Dangerous (1991) HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I (1995) Invincible (2001) Michael (2010) Xscape (2014)
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Rainbow Rosa
TI Forumite
not gay, just colorful
Posts: 3,604 
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Post by Rainbow Rosa on Apr 15, 2018 22:28:49 GMT -5
Not including the Jackson 5 (or at the very least, the early ones?)
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Post by ganews on Apr 15, 2018 22:50:47 GMT -5
Not including the Jackson 5 (or at the very least, the early ones?) Decided not to. I'd rather keep this short, finish it before my trip in July, which is also what kept me from picking Stevie Wonder. We've still got a few records before Off the Wall. |
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ayatollahcm
TI Pariah 
The Bringer of Peacatollah
Posts: 1,689
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Post by ayatollahcm on Apr 16, 2018 2:07:51 GMT -5
This list is a sham because it doesn't include his ET The Extra-Terrestrial storybook album.
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Post by ganews on Apr 16, 2018 7:45:17 GMT -5
This list is a sham because it doesn't include his ET The Extra-Terrestrial storybook album. Sometimes nice things happen if you ask nicely. I mean, shamone... |
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Post by ganews on Apr 21, 2018 18:36:53 GMT -5
Got to Be There (1972)  Pre-existing PrejudicesSo you knew the Jackson 5 from the oldies station when you were a kid, but did you know the little kid who became the King of Pop had four solo albums before he went platinum? I guess I figured there was some solo material in between those highs, but I never thought much about it. Since this was recorded before MJ turned 14, I'm going to assume this is still kiddie R&B stuff, not that that means it won't be good. I like the hat he's wearing, and I think I'd like a corduroy jacket right now. Songs"Ain't No Sunshine" - I love the Bill Withers original. This has bongo, 70s wobble, echoing electric guitar, and kiddie spoken word. Then the song starts, still bongo but with orchestra strings and backup women. Fine cover here but nothing can touch Bill Withers. I think there is some harmonica in there. Hey, the kid can really hold a note. "I Wanna Be Where You Are" - Glockenspiel. This is all very 70s, bass, violins, n' bongo. This is a hopeful song about the future and is better suited to a kid than a mournful dirge like the opener. Apparently this song gets covered a lot. "Girl Don't Take Your Love from Me" - A little group croon over tambourine and bass. There's a mid-song spoken-word bit and I can't help but think of when the Jackson 5 did "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus". "In Our Small Way" - This has more 60s throwback feel, they have some sort of sitar-adjacent thing going on over the bass and a backup chorus from ten years earlier. This is the "bubblegum" portion of the Wikipedia multi-genre label. "Got to Be There" - More glock to lead the title track. Multi-tracked Michaels sing. Another tame ballad, but the kid holds some more nice notes. Lots of musical triangle. This was the lead sing "Rockin' Robin" - Aw shit, I love this silly little song. I didn't even think about it being MJ solo on the cover, I assumed Jackson 5. This was a great choice for a kid artist. I like the little extra twang on the bass. Simple little bluesy number, rockabilly guitar with some wah. I generally support handclaps in music, and I am not at all immune to "tweedley deedlely dee". "Wings of My Love" - Heavy violins and harp while the kid croons. "Maria (You Were the Only One)" - Toms, glock, and vibraslap, this breaks the formula. This works better than the kid trying to sound like Bill Withers. The instrumentation manages to sound a bit dangerous so we don't think about a 13-year-old trying to put some slick into "my sweet little sunflower". Hey, a cool mid-song increase in tempo, I'm always on board with that. "Love Is Here and Now You're Gone" - Glock and rolling bass. Another break for spoken word. "You've Got a Friend" - The Carole King classic, but what can top James Taylor's version? This is fine, obviously more cheerful than Taylor. Summary: I'm impressed. It mostly strikes a balance between the kiddie stuff I anticipated and more adult sound. The breaks for MJ delivering spoken word do no favors, they only remind us all that this is a (very talented) kid instead of an adult crooner with a high voice. The only other misstep is "Ain't No Sunshine", just because teenage MJ isn't meant to sound like his dog died. But all in all solid, and great production throughout. I think the kid has a future. Favorite overall song: "Rockin' Robin". Kinda hate to pick the most gimme kid's song on the first solo, but here we are. The "new-to-me" distinction is going to be very important for this artist. Favorite new-to-me song: "Maria (You Were the Only One)", because "I Wanna Be Where You Are" gets unfairly dinged for sounding so much like what came after. Shamone running count: 0. Give it time.
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Post by ganews on Apr 29, 2018 17:37:59 GMT -5
Ben (1972)  Pre-existing PrejudicesWho is Ben? This is the second solo album and comes from the same year, and Wikipedia says MJ was still officially in the Jackson 5, so I can't imagine there's going to be much growth here. Good thing I'm not tallying songwriters like Fleetwood Mac, because there are a lot of them. Songs"Ben" - Acoustics and BWAAAAMP like the Christopher Nolan joke. This is very treacly, you've got a friend-stuff. Oh wow, apparently this song was composed for the sequel to "Willard", the movie about the killer rats. That is very weird and it makes the album cover weird. Oh god, what if all Michael's weirdness can be traced directly to outside influences?! (That is a dark joke, people.) "Greatest Show On Earth" - A little Brazilian flavor with the strings and flutes and sitar. Whoever arranged the instrumentals for all this and the fist album was super eclectic. Actually this is very different from the last album. This is also very feel-good, and it has me missing the soul from the debut. "People Make the World Go 'Round" - Filter 70s blaxploitation sound through a young Michael Jackson, add very socially-conscious lyrics about environmentalism, the school board, politicians, and so on. Prince had a lot of social consciousness in songs, and MJ eventually will have plenty too albeit comically tame. "We've Got a Good Thing Going" - More glock. I like the ukelele. The song has an easy, carefree sound suitable for a picnic blanket. "Everybody's Somebody's Fool" - A little more bass and 70s wobble that turns to pretty usual strings and crooning. There's a reference to answering to "the one up above"; yes I will be extensively comparing and contrasting to Prince in case that wasn't obvious yet. "My Girl" - Ah, return of the bongos to go with the glock. It's a slightly different take on the Temptations version, and it's pretty good - but still impossible not to sing along to the more popular cover of Smokey Robinson. MJ more clearly enunciates the lyrics, i.e. has a bit less soul. "What Goes Around Comes Around" - "I've had my eyes on you for three long years" - what, since you were 10? Petty good song though, more subtle background vocals and an awesome bassline. Is that a clarinet solo, maybe a recorder? "In Our Small Way" - Yes, this very same track appeared on the debut earlier this year. And here I thought we were getting away from Michael's spoken-word. Although the miniature "change the world" theme fits this album. Still though, this padding on a 31-minute record? "Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Da-Day" - Cool electric organ, and a conspiratorial little whisper. Hey this is fun! No background singers, horn farts, bongos. It jazzes up even more at the 2/3 mark with tambourine and Michael scatting. This is how it should be, the kid multi-tracked on his own. "You Can Cry On My Shoulder" - Straight Berry Gordy, just classic Motown sound all the way. I like those toms. Every time Michael "yells" he still sounds like just a kid. Summary: This was rather a step down. There's no pandering kiddie stuff or spoken-word (barring the repeat track), but the heavier use of background singers is a disappointment. They're in nearly every track as a major presence when the kid should be on his own showing off. He doesn't hold any big notes or do anything else to really stop you short. And if the debut was a wide range of sounds, this was very same-y until the end of the album. Favorite overall song: "Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Da-Day" Favorite new-to-me song: All new versions, except for play #2 of "In Our Small Way". Seriously, what a rip-off. Shamone running count: 0
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Post by Jimmy James on May 1, 2018 12:45:24 GMT -5
Got to Be There (1972) "You've Got a Friend" - The Carole King classic, but what can top James Taylor's version? This is fine, obviously more cheerful than Taylor. Would you accept horror legend Vincent Price and the Muppets' Uncle Deadly? (THEY'LL TAKE YOUR SOOOOUL IF YOU LET THEM!) |
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Post by ganews on May 8, 2018 20:01:54 GMT -5
Music & Me (1973)  Pre-existing PrejudicesAlmost one year later, it looks from the album cover that the kid wants to be taken more seriously by posing with a guitar which I'm fairly certain he doesn't play. Glancing at Wikipedia there was some tension behind the scenes. I doubt the music will hint at that at all. Will his voice be the same? Songs"With a Child's Heart" - I'll bet good money someone else wanted a track with this title to lead off. Pretty soft here. The kid doesn't push much. At least the background singers are just supporting and echoing...hm, maybe I spoke too soon. "Up Again" - More of the same. I'm glad Michael didn't write this because these lyrics are really, really crummy; lines about weather and nursery rhymes, I'm embarrassed for him. The only positive thing I note is this occasional weird synthy bass bump. "All the Things You Are" - This has some feeling finally, a little horn and funky organ, though just because it has some tempo doesn't make it stand out from the era. They let the kid sing by himself, that's how it should be. Apparently this is a musical number from the 30s which is neat. "Happy" - This was written for a movie with Diana Ross as Billie Holiday with a really cool supporting cast that sounds about 100x as interesting as this song. Sitar strums, strings, glockenspiel, backup singers. MJ holds a few high la-la-las briefly. "Too Young" - Jeez more piano, plus Sinatra strings. And this title, were they really trying to put the kid in his place or what? This really is Michael Jackson sings Sinatra (actually it's Nat King Cole), except Sinatra wouldn't have had any background singers, much less ones that sing whole couplets without him. The kid does hold a big closing note. "Doggin' Around" - The kid sings a little mopey blues, a genre he hasn't much touched. Nothing fancy but at least it's different, and some session players put a little sweet guitar riffing in the back and ticking ivories in the front. This pseudo-gospel breakdown is good, and it actually works to have backing singers with the kid for a change. It could be longer and I wouldn't complain. "Euphoria" - A little funky, potential to be dirty if it were someone else. The kid holds his biggest note of the album. Euphoria isn't the word I would use, more like Happy thinking of Daft Punk, but that track name was already taken. "Morning Glow" - A safe piano crooner with extra sitar strums. Sigh, backup singers. "Johnny Raven" - The guitar has a little energy that MJ could use. The backup singers tell us how cool he is. Is this Johnny Raven a new twist on Rockin' Robin? It's OK. Bongos. "Music and Me" - Acoustic strums that the kid doesn't play. Finally we see past the treacly title and find that music is the kid's friend, there were never two lovers like music and him. The lyrics are about how long they've been together but it is impossible not to think about the fact that means how long the kid has been suffering in the spotlight. Summary: Michael looks progressively sadder with each album cover and I agree. The backup singers make me miss the spoken-word on the solo debut. Long gone are the efforts to have the kid do material fit for adults, which were weird at the time but I now quite miss. If there was an album that fueled contemporary speculation that the buy was somewhere between put in a box and chemically controlled this must have been it. The debut was pretty strong, but this feels like a flameout. Favorite overall song: "Doggin' Around" Favorite new-to-me song: all new Shamone running count: 0
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Post by Powerthirteen on May 8, 2018 21:35:12 GMT -5
Music & Me (1973) I have some questions about the construction of that guitar. |
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Post by Jimmy James on May 9, 2018 15:31:49 GMT -5
For some reason, Spotify has "Johnny Raven" after "Doggin' Around" instead of next-to-last. I think that one's my favorite- the guitar reminds me of the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hanging On", which is an undeniable positive. Also, I would like to say that, while not as influential a song, "Euphoria" ranks ahead of "Respect" in terms of potential usefulness if you forget how to spell words. (The Bruce Lee Band's "List" is at the bottom, while Weird Al's "Albuquerque" would be at the top if he managed to get beyond the first Q.) |
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Post by ganews on May 9, 2018 20:22:10 GMT -5
For some reason, Spotify has "Johnny Raven" after "Doggin' Around" instead of next-to-last. I think that one's my favorite- the guitar reminds me of the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hanging On", which is an undeniable positive. Also, I would like to say that, while not as influential a song, "Euphoria" ranks ahead of "Respect" in terms of potential usefulness if you forget how to spell words. (The Bruce Lee Band's "List" is at the bottom, while Weird Al's "Albuquerque" would be at the top if he managed to get beyond the first Q.) Later releases of the album had the tracklist re-ordered that way. I wrote it with the original lineup. |
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Post by ganews on May 16, 2018 20:59:52 GMT -5
Forever, Michael (1975)  Pre-existing PrejudicesThis is the last of those Michael Jackson albums you didn't know about. The kid is 16 now; maybe we'll have some vocal changes? Everything about this album looks like the other solo offerings, but the kid is smiling on the album cover again, so despite the weak initial sales I am interpreting that as a good sign. Songs"We're Almost There" - A little rousing string and guitar wakka fills me with hope. Hold the phone...the voice - it's Michael Jackson as we know him! It's a bit younger, but you hear this and you know it's Michael. Background vocals sound like original Star Trek. Nice horn work here, a little bass that sounds like an organ. And it's got those weird space sounds from Steve Miller Band's "Fly Like an Eagle". The song has distinct parts. This is a whole new thing.
"Take Me Back" - Specifically, take me back to the bongos from the debut album. Like the lead track, this song is a lot more soul than we're used to from the kid. Outside the chorus, he lets the (thankfully quiet) backups hold the structure of the song while he moves all over the place. This song also has a distinct interlude in a lower key.
"One Day in Your Life" - Ballad time, and Jackson singing more softly makes it more clear that he's younger than 80s Michael Jackson. A little almost Spanish guitar, some harp (not the mouth kind - although maybe there is some of that too at the end??), big strings and yes indeed French horn. More Star Trek backup vocal.
"Cinderella Stay Awhile" - Sci-fi keys lead into almost a Casio beat with kinda goofy drums. More horn, bongo, Star Trek. The backup women and men play more of a roll, and this all feels a little Broadway. "Cinderella / Wanna be your fella"
"We've Got Forever" - Church piano and choir. Sci-fi keys and orchestra strings. Michael sort of duets with himself in places, it's close but intentionally not a double-track. Like many other young MJ songs, this is about spending some fairly chaste time with someone you really love, and because of the man's story it's kind of sad.
"Just a Little Bit of You" - Funky sounds here would make for some great samples. It gives way to an extremely disco affair with a dancing beat. "Just a little bit of you every day would surely keep the doctor away" and other cute lyrics. This has a sunny little breakdown, just a bit different from the rest of the sunny song, also a happy orchestral string bridge.
"You Are There" - Harp, sitar, clarinet, finger cymbals for this ballad. This sounds very much like something Mickey Dolenz would sing.
"Dapper-Dan" - I don't want Fop goddammit, I'm a Dapper Dan man! Big time wakka wakka hits you in the damn face. Oh dear, this is boy comes to town. Big fat beat. "I'm gonna be king of the discotheque". Honestly this is a bit-try-hard, especially considering nothing else on the album sounds like this. Little Feat's brand of boogie-woogie comes to mind. There's the promised harmonica. Background singers "ooh, he's sexy!" Think I'll start a tally of number of songs that tried to convince us something about MJ that nobody believed.
"Dear Michael" - More sci-fi effects for a down-tempo jam. Michael whispers for just a moment, but no it's not going to be spoken word. This subject wasn't any less creepy when Weezer wrote a song about personal feelings toward fan-mail. "Hurry Mr. Postman, take my letter" is probably an intentional reference to the Marvelettes.
"I'll Come Home to You" - There's the spoken word. This is absolutely the most adolescent he has ever sounded, neither adult nor squeaky kid. Sort of a bland closer.
Summary: Big, big step up here. Not that I've listened to Off the Wall yet, but I sure know "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough". If this album didn't exist in the space it does, I suspect Michael would have been a re-invention on the level of Robert Johnson. There is still a bit of bland balladeering, but this feels like a Michael in control of his talents, and of course the big thing is that he finally sounds like the MJ we know. The soul is back, and it doesn't feel like so much a put-on as when a talented but three-years-younger kid was singing. The instrumentation itself is such a relief; seriously, they were not helping the kid on the past 1.5 albums. Obviously I was looking forward to what comes next, but now I would be even if I was going in blind. Favorite overall song: "Just a Little Bit of You" Favorite new-to-me song: all new Shamone running count: 0 Tally of very insistent but unconvincing songs about MJ's qualities: 1
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Post by ganews on May 20, 2018 16:39:09 GMT -5
Off the Wall (1979)  Pre-existing Prejudices
Aw yeah, it's time to dance! Motown is in the past, which means Jackson is finally a credited writer. Quincy Jones is producing and even Paul McCartney is in the mix. Super-pumped for everything except that album cover; I'm glad the kid is happy again but I find it a little weird.
Songs"Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" - I didn't remember anything before the opening strings and woooo! but that spoken word bit is disturbing. There's that falsetto, and at long last MJ is his own backup singer the way he always should have been. (It's sort of all backup with occasional extra foregrounding.) His brother Randy is nice on the percussion. The electric break is so good, and there's a little crowd noise in the mix that I didn't remember. Longest track by far, and it's all good. The bass is so good throughout that it's easy to take for granted. I like those subtle deep toms.
"Rock with You" - Aw yeah groove. High disco strings. MJ croons and it's pure uncut MJ. More self-backup. Oooh, I love that subtle bit of horn on the chorus, good one Quincy. This song just makes me happy. It's not explicitly chaste or explicitly sexy, there's only one mention of love. This piping sort of sound in the bridge is curious. I wonder if that's a chorus of Michaels? The kid holds a note for the first time in a while.
"Working Day and Night" - This opening mix of percussion and breathing is cool. There's a little farty synth and more hard breathing. It's a more aggressive sound. Great horns. "Got me workin' workin' dayn'night *big sigh*", real callback to classic styles here. This is the sexiest song he's ever done. He sings about "you must be seeing some other guy", again implying there's an actual adult relationship here. Well, the kid is 20 after all. Ooh, there's some cha-cha-chee-chee, nice. Love this slight tempo increase late in the song.
"Get on the Floor" - BIG disco, BIG bass. He does a little something different with his voice at one point, actually he does a lot of things, this kid is a master. I love horns. Aw shit, what's this breakdown? More breathing gymnastics and echoing toms. MJ is almost rhythmically shouting. He laughs at one, we're all having fun. Some solid wakka in there.
"Off the Wall" - A little 70s intrigue with background oooos and weird laughter. "Gotta leave that 9-to-5 up on that shelf and just enjoy yourself". The kid continues to put on different voices like it's nothing. The first big ahh-HYEAH.
"Girlfriend" - Start with a bass roll and kind of goofy Casio sounds. This is extraordinarily light compared to what's come before. A little synth goofiness. MJ laughs a little to himself. Big saxy times. Normally this song about MJ taking some poor schmuck's girl would make the "unconvincing" tally, but with everything previous on this album I can believe it. This is the McCartney song, and it's the least so far.
"She's Out of My Life" - Slooooow way down with the orchestra intro. Way, way down. This was actually designed as a Sinatra crooner. He croons it alright, and there's some echoing effect, organ, and piano that sounds like marimba. Even here MJ throws in some of his vocal tics. Oy, there's a pause before the last line and almost an affected crying.
"I Can't Help It" - Still pretty slow with chimes and stand-up bass. The kid rumbas it up a little more. This could almost be sexy with Michael running his hands, but using words like "sparkles" isn't helping. Lots of chimes while MJ scats around.
"It's the Falling in Love" - Wow, the kid almost convinces me this is a woman singing the opening - oh wait it actually is. Lots of synth around, some wobble, high bass pops. "My heart is saying 'come and do me'." Things pick up with the tempo and horns late in the song.
"Burn This Disco Out" - I want this track title to be true. Big horns, like Blood Sweat & Tears here. Handclaps, reference to a DJ spinning sounds. Still another Michael Voice, this one distinctly deep, I should have counted how many there were on this album! Solid ending. Alright I pulled up Wikipedia and there are other vocalist on this album, but it's impossible to tell who is an actual person and who is another Michael Voice.
Summary: I have to go to a wedding next week, and on the space for song requests on the RSVP I put "Hey Ya". Fine, but I would like to go back and change my request to the first half of this album. I sure as hell will have it for the 3-hour drive up there. Until I got to McCartney's "Girlfriend" I was prepared to be slapped with something on the level of top-shelf Prince, but as it turns out it's more of a Half-Prince-Nelson (TM). And seeing as Stevie Wonder did arrangements on "I Can't Help It" maybe it's all just better off if we let the kid handle himself OK? While Side A is truly amazing, it's all pretty solid except for "She's Out of My Life". Big thanks again to Forever, Michael without which in-between we would all have our heads blown off. So many classic MJ effect here, the shouts, the squeals, just the sound. Favorite overall song: "Working Day and Night". Impossible to choose between the first three tracks really, so this probably benefits from being new to me. Favorite new-to-me song: "Working Day and Night" Shamone running count: 0 Woo/oooo squeal running count: 17. This count is highly subjective, because it's squeals and not garden-variety "ooo". Honestly it's hard to keep up with this one.
Tally of very insistent but unconvincing songs about MJ's qualities: 2. I ultimately rounded up "Girlfriend" because the back of the album was not such a baller.
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Post by ganews on Jun 11, 2018 22:12:22 GMT -5
Thriller (1982)  Pre-existing PrejudicesGet your serious face on, it's time for one of the top all-time monster albums. And I've never heard it before! At least not in the track order. As amazing as Off the Wall was, it faltered a bit in the second half, and there is surely no chance of that happening here. (I'm back after a wedding and a conference, so just keep your fingers crossed for E.T. and a little something near to my heart).
Songs
"Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" - Electro-snare and big synth beat to lead it off. Interesting kind of approach this time to MJ backing himself up. I don't remember this flip-voice he puts on. There's some trumpet fanfare that went on to be incorporated into all manner of bland denshipiano pop (any SMAP fans out there?). Ow! This beat is actually a good bit cooler than the song, which is actually just OK compared to other MJ stuff. "You're a vegetable!" Overall it reminds me of some of the world-unity sounds I associate with more of the late 80s. "If you can't raise a baby, then don't have a baby"; Prince wasn't the only one preaching. Long track, isn't? Mama say-mama saa-ma-ma-coo-sa! Lots of hee-hee.
"Baby Be Mine" - Little bit o' funk, farty bass and synth. The kid croons. It's a lot sexier, though that trumpet fanfare can't sound like anything but my adolescence to me. These exclamations are again more ow than woo. I guess this is more generic, but actually I like it more than the famous lead track. Gonna want that cowbell, baby.
"The Girl Is Mine" - 80s doo-wop with finger-snaps and chime waterfall. "The doggone girl is mine", what the hell kind of goofy-ass lyric is that? McCartney takes verse 2. Their voices actually blend pretty well together, but it's obvious MJ is the superior singer compared to Paul's kinda bland delivery include the latter's unwise attempt to drop his voice a register. And spoken word! Oh this part is awful. The kid's spoken voice is so high it's ridiculous.
"Thriller" - Creaky door, footsteps, wolf howl...here it comes...DA DAAA! DA DA DAAAAAA! and the synth line comes in. This song really does sound dangerous, even apart from the threatening lyrics. I've still got goosebumps. This trumpet flare and sound effects should be cheesy but I can't help loving it. The lightness of the chorus is a great balance. Best use of MJ self-backing vocals yet? Love the almost breakdown at the end of the one chorus. Ow! I love that synth vibrato thing. Here come Vincent Price! Some hee-hee. I remember when my college roommate had this laugh on his cell voicemail. Has there ever been a song so deserving of its own dance?
"Beat It" - Somehow even more foreboding. Those slams, then the riff, so cool. MJ sounds serious. Just beat it UUUHH! These little trills and grunts are kind of funny, but I like it. Was this an effective anti-gang message? It's cool in any event. Nice work on the panting. I would know that solo as pure Eddie Van Halen even if I didn't know. And yet, it is not the part of the song I think of when I think of the song, it's all about the kid.
"Billie Jean" - All time three-in-a-row? cause there's the drum, there's the bass, there's ch-ch-ch. Synth strings on the riff.Hearing the songs in row, I appreciate so much more how this tempo is toned way down. Solid Terminator beat. Heeee-eeee! The guitar work is great, great use of strings especially when they sweep down. Do think twice! All the interjections are brilliant, it's less like self-backing and more like multiple Michaels. The solo and vocals blend so well, just simple and effective. This is the best song to sing along to.
"Human Nature" - Synth-based pop ballad, pretty major shift to the soft after the awesome power of the previous three tracks. No more shouts and pants, just soft warble. Briefest of synth solos, more breathy croon.
"P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" - Hmm, I don't remember this spoken-word opener, it sounds like MJ has the world's softest orgasm. The beat comes on and it's OK, the croon turns into a synthy disco thing. I like the electrified backing vocal the most of any backing not done by Jackson himself - PYT! TLC! Later it's full robot voice, grunts, pants, poppin' bass, and crowd repetition. Got some crazy frog voice, kissy, and spoken word, didn't remember those superfluous bits either.
"The Lady in My Life" - Slow it down for slow jamz. The kid croons. Soft jazzy trumpet, synthy strings for the romance. Easy bass pops, lay-day. More good interplay between vocal foreground and background.
Summary: It's easy to see why this was such a hit, beyond MTV and such. Sure it's got one of the greatest 3-song lineups in history, but the album as a whole really has something for everyone. A little aggression, a little funk, a little disco, a little rock for the first time in "Beat It", and what is actually the greatest gimmick song of all time in the title track. What's more it all actually flows pretty well; I would have switched "Human Nature" and "PYT", but then I wouldn't have bothered listening to the end of the album. Compare this to the best Queen albums, which played a something-for-everyone variety that made for amazing Greatest Hits yet had terrible album flow. I wouldn't totally excise any track, but hoo boy that spoken word with McCartney was bad. Favorite overall song: "Billie Jean" Favorite new-to-me song: "Baby Be Mine" Shamone running count: 0 Woo/oooo squeal running count: 35.
Tally of very insistent but unconvincing songs about MJ's qualities: 2. "Billie Jean" does not fit here, it is actually super-honest about MJ.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2018 10:33:39 GMT -5
It's always been a strange source of comfort that an album and artist this downright weird can be the world champion in album sales (if you go by Wikipedia's top-selling album rankings, Thriller sold a full 21 million copies over the second-place finisher, AC/DC's Back in Black).
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Post by ganews on Jun 20, 2018 18:54:19 GMT -5
Bad (1987)  Pre-existing PrejudicesMichael Jackson's biggest-selling album is Thriller, but is it his best? Bad has the most length to date, the most Jackson-penned songs, the greatest delay since the previous album. I'm excited to see what happens. Pretty sure there will be no crying this time, not with a spray-painted title track like this. Also holy hell but Jackson got white on this cover, certainly more that Thriller but even more than Captain EO from 1986.
Songs
"Bad" - Synth drum and bumpy intro, but in my memory there was more bass. Very breathy. Shamone! I'm beeeehhhd! Ya know! The guitar peeking in on verse two is a real improvement. The end-of-chorus "who's bad?!" kicks ass. Oh hey, this is an awesome synth bridge I did not remember at all. Really really bad! Hoo!
"The Way You Make Me Feel" - Something roars, and some terminator shit starts up with a beat. Hee hee! Oh it's this song, I did not recognize the title, of course. All this industrial is pretty cool, and it contrasts very nicely with MJ's high singing. The vocals are almost throwback, like an updated doo-wop, and there are low-level strings and a couple horns. This song makes me happy. More nice bridge. Hee-hee is probably my favorite MJ vocal tick. Terminator outro.
"Speed Demon" - The motor revs, the industrial synth starts up with breathiness and Blue Man Group pipe-banging. This very electronic synth waterfall isn't quite right for "speed demon", none of this reminds me of the opening motor. MJ sings a bridge in the highest voice possible, then the motor comes back. And like a distorted saxophone. The guitar that looks in has a little pick-up funk, if you want to get into Prince comparisons.
"Liberian Girl" - I feel a world music song coming on. Vague bird sounds, a foreign language, electric marimba, toms. Jackson sings softly over synthy undertone. Is this the only time Liberia has been referenced in popular music? It feels so out-of-nowhere, but hey good for them.
"Just Good Friends" - More piano and synth screwing around. More industrial and toms. Still upbeat, though, and how can you not be with those denshipiano trumpets? Stevie Wonder comes in for verse two. Very 80s electric guitar. What's the term for when the repeated verse key suddenly rises like in R.E.M.'s "Stand"?
"Another Part of Me" - Someone laid on the keyboard and made the THX sound effect before the video game music came on. (I actually just know this song from Captain EO.) His enunciation is a little funny, "swjust anowtha paht-ah meeee". This song is pretty straightforward, whereas so many of the others are juxtapositions.
"Man in the Mirror" - Starts off just as easy as can be with hiccups and fingersnaps. I like the electric bounce that underpins the chorus. The self-backing has been so good for so long it has passed beneath comment, but it deserves to be highlighted again here. A lesser song would have used the gospel choir throughout instead of just for the big climax. Did he invent the title phrase? Because it is truly embedded in the lexicon. Shamone! Ya know! Pretty impressive how he stretches this song without it getting tired. I heartily endorse the sentiment, if not the spoken word ending.
"I Just Can't Stop Loving You" - Speaking of which, Jackson whispers some pillow talk. It is impossible to hear this without reflecting on how damaged he was in real life; it does sound incredibly intimate. Afterward it's very soft croon over piano, taps, and string. It does build to a big swell in the chorus with fingersnaps, to its credit. The female guest singer is an OK addition.
"Dirty Diana" - Is this going to be a version of "Darling Nikki"? It does start off with that foreboding sci-fi sound Prince used sometimes. Then there's hi-hats looking in and crowd noise. Big electric guitar for the chorus. This is another story about sex with groupies; Diana even offers to "be the freak that you want". This sounds pretty raw. Yeah, with this screaming guitar and screaming MJ I think I was right about "Darling Nikki". I was wrong about the crying though. The synth freaks out.
"Smooth Criminal" - Yes, I do like the Alien Ant Farm cover, but as it happens that whole album is great. Anyway, this starts with heartbeats and scared breathing before Jackson's tics come in with synth beat. Someone once called this MJ's most incomprehensible song, and I must agree. H even sings over himself, all very deliberately schizophrenic. More industrial effects, bangs and taps. The trumpet I would have left out, but I'm otherwise into the weirdness, and this guitar-and-synth bridge is bad-ass. I'm pretty sure this a remixed version, but oh well.
Summary: I think I guessed right about this album compared to Thriller, which is to say that I rate it stronger and more consistent throughout even if the previous album undeniably had higher highs. No more dancing this time, and the consistent terminator beats do make it it darker and edgier, but let us not have any illusions about the artist. This may be Jackson's tough face, but it still features plenty of love songs and an intro with some of the barest soul-baring. It's also still fun. Jackson was really running out of oxygen on this album, setting a new record for his many vocal tics. It's a good thing I'm not recording hee-hee and ow or I'd be too busy with the running tallies to review the music. Favorite overall song: "The Way You Make Me Feel" Favorite new-to-me song: "Dirty Diana". I'm not in love with it, but it is pretty wild. Shamone running count: 13
Woo/oooo squeal running count: 71
Tally of very insistent but unconvincing songs about MJ's qualities: 3. The title track, c'mon...
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Post by ganews on Jun 29, 2018 18:55:41 GMT -5
Dangerous (1991)  Pre-existing PrejudicesThe 80s are done, so forgive me for thinking it's all downhill from here. (Except for that song "Scream" he did with Janet, I'm looking forward to that.) I mean, this has "Heal the World", the first song I can remember thinking of as treacly, even if I didn't know that word at the time. Still, there's probably some good stuff here right? For the first time in his solo career, the album cover is more than just an artist promo still.
Songs"Jam" - Turntable scratches for a new decade! Samples, breaking glass, vocals low in the mix but still delivering venom somehow, with socially conscious lyrics. Good ol' denshipiano trumpet. Someone doing a guest rap, wow the Prince comparisons were really not superficial after all. Aw shit that's Heavy D rapping! Woo-hoo! I am truly amazed at the continuance of this golden streak of killer album openers.
"Why You Wanna Trip on Me" - Metal riff, big beat, more samples. More venom in the vocal, with just a bit of electronic modification to it. There's some more melodic singing in the self-backup. Drugs, police brutality, prostitution (even if he doesn't use that word), hunger - this really covers all the bases. The sampling and beat feel very early 90s, I really like it. The faintest hee-hee, much more breathy than the opener.
"In the Closet" - After two killers, the strings are up while a princess of Monaco whispers sweet nothings. Oh wait, this just turned into a song after all. More Fine Young Cannibals beat, but the vocals are smoother. Even suggestive..."aw she wants to give it"..."there's something about you baby that makes me want to give it to you". Oh my god, "if it's achin' you have to rub it"! Yes, I'm calling it sexy. Too bad each verse ends with an admission that such feelings have to be kept in the closet. I guess this could be the gayest song ever? Why have I never heard a moral panic over this? These breaking glass sound effects are adorable.
"She Drives Me Wild" - More sound effects, unfortunate car horns. It's keeping the party going though. The vocal delivery this time is a lot more rockist; all the melodic singing is again left to chorus self-backup. Another rap guest; dear lord this is the guy who did "Rump Shaker".
"Remember the Time" - Aw yeah, I know this one. Easier beat but still made of a nice farty synth, smooth delivery in the verse for the fist time this album. Man this is just cool. Simple lyrics, but they really resonate with me now that I a old enough to remember the time when we fell in love, when we first met, girl. I like the way the layering really drops hard on the last line of the chorus. I want to go to another wedding so I can put this on the playlist and dance with my wife. Ha, nice R-rolling.
"Can't Let Her Get Away" - Another 90s sample-fest that defined a decade of pop in the US and even longer elsewhere in the world. It's a fine beat, electric strings supporting. Simple repetitive chorus. OK but not as defining. MJ engages in a bit of stutter/scat/something that is not rap. This would have been fine to use in Donkey Kong Country for the faux-MJ music of Funky Kong.
"Heal the World" - Stop it short with piano and light chime waterfalls. Sloooow piano. Spoken word by a child, then the song starts over the sound of kids. I know the words to the chorus by heart. I guess this really isn't a bad song, I just never liked this vacation Bible school junk. And it is definitely out of place after six party songs, it's not even next to the early socially-conscious lyrics. Gospel choir of course.
"Black or White" - Drum beat n' guitar riff on the radio, someone bangs on the wall and we have this long snippet of a skit that has nothing to do with the music. Ow! I guess we've entered the world-saving portion of the evening, but at least this has an awesome earworm of a guitar riff. This breakdown is pretty cool, it's got a gust rap too. A new hybrid: the hoo-hee. The message is all one love, but did anyone believe it even at the time? Maybe they were just watching the high-tech video. Shamone.
"Who Is It" - Suddenly we're back to heavy tech beat world. MJ gave everything to a girl, she broke her promises and he's pretty bitter. His calls of the title question sound appropriately angry and bitter. You can really feel it. We get a bridge with flute which is quite nice. This is just quality R&B; ask for a definition of the genre and this is a track to point to.
"Give In to Me" - So this features Slash. It's a light beat, high vocals, a quiet guitar riff, strings. Ah, but it turns out to be a bit of the quiet-loud when the chorus comes in. Slash gets a cool solo. Then another later with extra noodle. I have always approved of a figh-ah/desigh-ah rhyme.
"Will You Be There" - Classical choir and orchestra. Wikipedia says this was the them to "Free Willy", which I guess is a step up from the rat-boy movie sequel. I saw Free Willy at some point but I remember almost nothing of it. I'm typing all this because the choir/orchestra is still going...ah there's some piano, the choir starts humming and world beat and ok I know this song. File under world-savers. This is worse than "Heal the World". Woo. Dear lord it won't end. Jackson gives tearful spoken word.
"Keep the Faith" - The healing ballads keep on coming. A little piano picks up and sometimes there's a semblance of a beat, but it just goes back under the healing waves. I don't want to listen to this anymore the way I don't want to watch "Family Matters". I guess the breakdown at the end is nice for the genre but I am in no mood.
"Gone Too Soon" - Ugh THX ocean washing strings and more soft touch-feely and I don't want to believe in myself I want to stop listening. Actually this is a memorial song, and I'm sure it got sung at a lot of funerals, sorry dead people who wouldn't have wanted this. Look at the songs it was grouped with, it makes perfect sense until it doesn't (includes "She's Out of My Life" and "Thriller").
"Dangerous" - Close it with one last dance popper beat. MJ does some more slightly-modded vocals, but spoken word this time. Turns out it was the girl who was dangerous, not Michael. Oh right this song. Pretty good for a lot of spoken word, but the sung chorus and bridge are certainly better. Watch out for the corrupting influences of those dangerous sexy girls. Another excellent Funky Kong instrumental in the back of this one, and we pass 100 woos.
Summary: All the way up to "Heal the World" I'm thinking "holy shit this is going to top Off the Wall". Hell I was still thinking that for several more songs after, because the album isn't entirely front-loaded and even the healers in the middle aren't that bad. And then solid dance numbers still get peppered in. It's really the weak "Will You Be There"/"Keep the Faith"/"Gone Too Soon" that does it in. What a shame; without those tracks this would easily be a top-3 album. I guess I should be happy I was only 4.5/17 right about the treacle, but half-Prince-Nelsons are so disappointing. One thing is true, Jackson continues to demonstrate his incredible ability to emote through vocal performance. Not just his "Heal the World" songs, which might as well be the name of the type, but on at least half the album.
Favorite overall song: "Remember the Time" Favorite new-to-me song: "Who Is It" for superior emotional game, but there were many choices Shamone running count: 14
Woo/oooo squeal running count: 102
Tally of very insistent but unconvincing songs about MJ's qualities: 3. Stays the same because turns out Michael does not claim to be dangerous.
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Post by ganews on Jul 4, 2018 17:54:24 GMT -5
HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I (1995)  Pre-existing PrejudicesObviously there will never be a Book II. So this was a double album package; the first half was a Greatest Hits package, the second all original. That is a cheap-ass move, considering he was following up one of the most successful runs in history (the hits disk does have a really solid line-up) at a static album release pace - it says nothing to me but that MJ and/or the powers that be thought the original material couldn't match success on its own (this goes way beyond slapping two new tracks onto a stand-alone greatest hits collection). This tells me I'm in for a bad time, like what I was expecting from Dangerous. The guy was abused, there's no denying that, but (especially coming af the first allegations against him) it looks like this is going to be nothing but complaints of persecution. Justified of not, it doesn't sound like fun. So, to disk II: "Scream" - I've been waiting for this one, I remember thinking at the time that it was cool. Starts with some video game boss electronica, then explodes into a jam. The screams are more like wails. Hoo-hoos land between Janet's lines. The "stop pressurin' me" of the chorus is pretty cool. Was that "stop fuckin' with me"?! Pause for soft interlude, then a guitar bridge. Janey works well with Michael, but there's no mistake as to whose show this is. The speeded up electric blowout are cool.
"They Don't Care About Us" - Teenagers chant. Electronic waves give way to paper-fan beat. MJ spits the lines. I'm listening to some kind of edited version that layers an effect on top of "Jew me" and "k**e me"; maybe you're not an anti-Semite MJ, but that language is, and it's not a good fit for when you talk about oppression. Electric guitar chugga bridge. It's an angry sound but that's about all it has going for it.
"Stranger In Moscow" - Slow electric beating hard in the headphones, one-world sounds and electric string rise. MJ sings and backup MJs sing for the first time in a while. Sounds very 90s. Even the KGB is after Michael. Piano bridge. Is that not-Kenny G in the back? The MJ vocal tics are very subdued. Whispered Russin at the outro.
"This Time Around" - Cool beat, mildly funky. Lakka lakka lakka. Michael's takin' no shit! Such language. Fair use of megaphone effect. They wanna get him and falsely accuse him. This is not objectively a bad song, in context it is as I predicted. Hey, that's Notorious B.I.G. on a guest rap, referring to having a gun smoking, and dropping the n-bomb. Holy cow. This is at least as painful as Snoop's "Murder Was the Case".
"Earth Song" - Leads with a harp and nature sounds, this is not going to be good. Piano, strings, emotional solo singing. The earth is hurting and kids are dying. I feel like this snare tap sums it up. The strings really pick up with chants in the back, the choir inevitably comes in. This could be the either worst or the best karaoke performance of all time.
"D.S." - Ow! We get a big pop beat. The CIA gets named among all the police corruption. "Tom Sneddon is a cold man" is oft-repeated; Google says that is a modified version of the DA who prosecuted MJ. Slash is back, gets name-checked before his solo. Samples of "Owner of a Lonely Heart" are always welcome. Track ends with a gunshot, take that Sneddon.
"Money" - Pop beat. Whispered evils of money. This spoken word is more like a soft rap and is pretty good actually. Then Michael comes in and sings. This would be better as two songs; a straight pop song about the evils of money would be awesome, and this unique rap from Michael is really good and new for him. This righteousness can take on any example from Prince you can name. As the song goes on and leans more heavily on the singing, I'm coming around to thinking that this juxtaposition is pretty cool.
"Come Together" - Is this cover more or less heresy compared to when Aerosmith did it? The instrumentation is cooler, the vocal is edgier. The chorus is actually a little cheesy. All the soul thrown in around the bridge is just try-hard. The snippets thrown in at the end are worse.
"You Are Not Alone" - Oh god it's this song. And R. Kelly wrote this?! That is completely amazing, and now that I know that of course he did - I lived through Space Jam, I know what mass market R. Kelly jams sound like. Okay let's try to be objective. This is not awful; I think pablum is the right word. At least this is a chorus of Michaels and not a choir, even when it gets extra churchy at the end. The kid holds a long note like in the old days. "Not alone! Not alone!" still rattles thorugh my head all these years later.
"Childhood" - "Have you seen my childhood?" Yes these are actually the opening words to this song, which comes from Free Willy 2 unbelievably yet so believably. My god, I have to restrain myself from transcribing all these lyrics. Choice bits: "no one understands me, they view it as such strange eccentricities"; "people say I'm not okay cause I love such elementary things, it's been my fate to compensate for the childhood I've never known". Also the music is plinky what you'd expect. Oh god he's crying.
"Tabloid Junkie" - Where do we even go from here. A headline reader says MJ sleeps in a hyperbaric chamber, which I do not remember was true or not. Then a beat starts, it samples an impossibly tiny ooo that is too much trouble to count, but how can I listen to anything anymore. MJ specifically pushes back against gay rumors. He spits a very angry, messy rap I can't even understand. This would sound pretty good actually if it were about absolutely anything else. The background mumbles say, and I searched to confirm this "Jackson's longtime friend Donald Trump".
"2 Bad" - Some black dudes in conversation for the opening snippet. A cool heavy synth thing starts the song proper. Look at this title; I should have done a tally of "songs where Prince comparisons were humorously close". This is pretty cool; it's MJ being bitterly triumphant, but it's generic enough to ignore the context. Ha this a guest rap from Shaq, who names himself so that we know he is a rapper and repeatedly throws in laughter.
"HIStory" - Patriotic fanfare. More voiceover, twisted "America the Beautiful". Lots of odd newsreel samples. What is almost a bg-beat song suddenly devolves to vacation bible school with finger snaps extra loud in my ear. Then the whole cycle repeats. MLK clip doesn't suffer the record scratch. There's the choir. There must a almost a whole minute of overlapping vocal snippets and historical recordings at the end.
"Little Susie" - Latin choir slowly sings the words I know from Monty Python, *clunk*. This goes on forever. Then a cild winds a music box and lalas along for another million years. Then finally Michael sings the title dirge over orchestra and guitar strumming. This is an okay ballad but I don't want to be here anymore, and I just have to assume this dramatic song about a little girl dying is a metaphor for MJ himself.
"Smile" - Chime waterfall, harp, soft singing over strings. Smile even when everything is bad, please just end this thing. This violin solo sounds like a musical saw. MJ lalas over jaunty piano and fingersnaps and does some truly shitty whistling, who is even this bad at whistling? Oh I see, he was crying and trying to smile through it.
Summary: Well this is in the anti-pantheon of albums I have listened to for a discography review. I was wrong before; this wasn't released with a greatest hits package because it's bad (though it is pretty bad) but because it is some of the rankest propaganda ever set to music. Michael's ability to emote has gone off the cliff, he's in overdrive, it's all raw nerve. It's kind of amazing that any good tracks came out of this catastrophe, and there are a number of good songs that would have been good if the lyrics were about anything else. It's also amazingly cynical to release this album not only with the hits package but a Beatles cover and high-profile family duet thrown in to boot. The guy musically shot his DA prosecutor. It's crazy. With one album left from during his lifetime, I don't even know what happens next.
Favorite overall song: "Scream" Favorite new-to-me song: "2 Bad" Shamone running count: 14
Woo/oooo squeal running count: 167. A lot of these were woo-hoo instead of just woo, which is new, too.
Tally of very insistent but unconvincing songs about MJ's qualities: 3. Well seeing as this whole album is about Michael...
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Post by ganews on Jul 14, 2018 14:18:17 GMT -5
Invincible (2001)  Pre-existing PrejudicesIt's been six years since his propaganda trainwreck that also produced some pretty good music if you don't know anything about Michael Jackson. In 2001 MJ was completely off my radar (and I wouldn't think of him again until the innocent verdict in 2005), so unless I I realize I have heard something off this I'm going in blind. It's another long album with a "they're all against me title" so I expect this to be more of the same from this his final album released in his lifetime.
Songs "Unbreakable" - Sci-fi effects give way to a bouncy industrial keyboard beat. It's hard for me to put this into a 2001 frame; Prince at least made a lot of effort adapting to popular new sounds. MJ's voice sounds the same, so that's good. Lyrics about how he can't be brought down; why didn't this use the album title? Wild thought: in an alternate universe Linkin Park collaborates with MJ instead of Jay-Z. Uhhh Biggie Smalls returns for another guest rap, except he had been dead four years by this point. Long woo-hooo-hoooos.
"Heartbreaker" - Static and sick-stick sample that remind me of Ginuwine's "Pony" from a few years earlier. Verse vocals are low in the mix, and overall it's energetic and breathy. High vocals on the chorus, more in line with R&B at the time. Someone who is not Biggie (but is named "Fats") does a rap verse. Double down on static and rips. Ow!
"Invincible" - OK now it's the actual title track. Also sort of a bouncy industrialism. Vague reference to Prince's Diamonds and Pearls and Around the World in a Day? It's another switcheroo on an album title obviously meant to apply to Jackson, see it's the girl who is Invincible just like a girl who was Dangerous. Another guest rap verse. Heeeey, hee-hee.
"Break of Dawn" - Nature samples and flute, heavy drum tap, chime waterfall. It's a romantic ballad composed of short lines. These backup vocals actually sound like other people, except they exhibit just a bit of MJ's end-of-syllable tics, so I'm sure it's him. This is approximately Grown Folks Music. Got some really sung wooos here that I won't tally.
"Heaven Can Wait" - Music box chimes into slow jamz. It does sound rather more like 2001-contemporary slow jamz, just sung by MJ. It's got some female voices joining him. MJ's soul cries sound particularly stressed.
"You Rock My World" - Sounds like someone is doing a Chris Tucker impression, and Michael is in conversation with him. Oh shit, he's name-checked as "Chris"! Michael's gonna get that girl, and Chris utters two shamones, I've just got to count that. Easy beat, some bass and piano. MJ just is not cool enough to pull of that studio talk thing. This is an okay jam, easy and unobtrusive. Long break to sing over bass and turntables. At least we get some woo.
"Butterflies" - Ladies lala, chime waterfall, straight slow beat. The women walk by without acknowledging MJ's smile. Maaaaaybe I heard this chorus? It swells up compared to the verse but this isn't really specifically memorable. Some light horn joins the snaps and copious chimes.
"Speechless" - A capella. Finally some strings and soft guitar start, then a soft tap beat. Not singing about explicitly romantic love, more like...awe. Sounds like a Disney movie. Got some harp in there. The cadence sounds exactly like "Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me". Then back to a capella. Oof, another song with a tearful final word.
"2000 Watts" - "You may now apply your 3D glasses", and the voice continues as a big tech-industrial beat starts, sounding like it belongs on a movie score. Kind of nuts after the last track. Uhh, this does not sound like Michael at all, like you could win good money betting people that this is MJ. There are some DMX "what!"s in there. Seriously, there are little hints, but this sounds like Michael's younger cousin not even trying to do a good impression of him. "Two. Thousand. Watts." Sounds like late 90s crossover. Like when Garth Brooks tried on a different persona. Wikipedia doesn't have a link for this song and it's a damn shame because I want to know what's going on.
"You Are My Life" - Oh OK, this is MJ again softly singing with drum taps and guitar strings again. This also seems familiar, in fact the longer the chorus goes the more I am sure. Chime waterfall. Hm this ballad kept going but I forgot to write anything.
"Privacy" - More people in the street recognize Michael. Michael hoarsely sings at the tabloid photographers; actually the static and camera click-winder sample in the beat is a nice effect. Chorus is a bit on-the-nose, and that's saying a lot for late-MJ. It's sort of a slow roller. Someone who is not Slash does a pretty good electric guitar solo.
"Don't Walk Away" - More ballad with strings. I'm not sure if I've heard this before or if it just sounds too much like "You Are Not Alone". The beat doesn't have a drum tap so much as a the seal popping on a bottle.
"Cry" - It's an R. Kelly song. YouTube is playing a video, so I guess this was a successful single, but it's not familiar at all. "You can change to world" is the first line of the chorus, that sums it up. It's sappy secular choir music, that's all you need to know. The woos are hilariously subdued though.
"The Lost Children" - Yes this album is still going, now on the fumes of fingerpicking, harp, and bongo taps. Later some children's chorus joins in.
"Whatever Happens" - Whistling. Apparently this is Santana doing the acoustic strumming, but hey at least there's no Rob Thomas. Maracas, ah there's the Santana guitar wail. Bit of a story song here. This voice also doesn't quite sound like MJ, though it's not on the level of "2000 Watts", and once he starts exclaiming we know where we are again. This is OK, it would have passed muster on Santana's Supernatural which my mother owned. MJ thanks Carlos.
"Threatened" - Twilight Zone sample which is pretty cool, over a nice techno jam beat. Michael is a monster here, I mean that's what he said. This is a tough and good, I wish it would go over the top. It could be like a sequel to "Thriller". Instead it is fairly subdued, but I guess that works in its own way. They remixed Rod Serling's narration so that he actually delivers a spoken-word rap, which I say is even more awesome than Vincent Price on "Thriller". The final words while MJ was alive? Rod Serling saying "What you just witnessed could be the end of a terrifying nightmare; it isn't, it's the beginning".
Summary: Overall, I guess it's a bit...watered down? Like take all the elements that post-70s Michael Jackson was known for and dilute them a bit. The dance/rock tracks aren't as aggressive as in the 80s; the propaganda isn't as strident (or as plentiful, fortunately) as HIStory, the save-the-world stuff isn't as strong or as well-known as Dangerous, the ballads and emotion are bland compared to what's come before. It's not as frustrating as the previous record, but it's not as good either. This is the first album in a long time where Jackson had something to say (as opposed to dance to) that didn't sound like it burned off a raw nerve. Maybe by this point he was just plain tired; after all, he lived eight more years without an album. The tracks where he literally doesn't sound like himself are just crazy. Seriously, I am going to go win some money by betting people that the vocalist on "2000 Watts" is Michael Jackson.
Favorite overall song: "Threatened" Favorite new-to-me song: "Threatened" Shamone running count: 14 +2 guest.
Woo/oooo squeal running count: 185.
Tally of very insistent but unconvincing songs about MJ's qualities: 3.
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Post by William T. Goat, Esq. on Jul 15, 2018 14:36:00 GMT -5
Bad (1987) Where's "Leave Me Alone"? |
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Post by ganews on Jul 15, 2018 16:05:57 GMT -5
Bad (1987) Where's "Leave Me Alone"? It was only a bonus track on CD and post-2001 re-releases, but yes I do remember it a little. It's another switcheroo track where the title clearly refers to real-life Michael but the context of the song means something else...sort of. It says "don't just leave me alone" but also "stop doggin' me around". But still, a harbinger of things to come. Good song, good tempo, very much in line with the rest of that album. I particularly like the vocal breakdown that leads the chorus. |
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Post by ganews on Jul 17, 2018 20:59:31 GMT -5
Michael (2010)  Pre-existing Prejudices
Forever, Michael would have been a better posthumous album title, but that one was taken. No idea what to expect anymore - a glance at the recording dates on the tracklist (and I will include them here) puts these from all over, only some of them recorded after Invincible. A lot of this also is songs built by other people around MJ's vocal tracks, which I don't approve of. This isn't a Prince vault situation.
Songs
"Hold My Hand" (2008) - Strings, easy beat. Akon and MJ, the former auto-tuned/modulated. It sounds very modern, not like the almost-throwback instrumentation of Invincible. This is a real duet, not just a song featuring Akon. That space was formerly reserved for only very special people, like Janet and McCartney. This is very much not my thing. MJ probably would have approved of the gospel choir. Akon throws in some hoos.
"Hollywood Tonight" (1999-2008) - Echoing monk chant, then a beat and baka-chicka-baka beatboxing. Michael maybe has an autotuned edge his voice all by himself, which is heresy. Rhyming spoken word bridge. The vocals are fairly subdued, even the woos. This does seem like the sort of thing Michael would have naturally evolved towards by himself, unlike the opener.
"Keep Your Head Up" (2007) - Piano, strings, acoustic guitar strums. The instrumentation bounces back and forth in the stereo headphones in an incredibly annoying fashion. MJ sings a little inspirational ballad. Gospel choir claps. Electronic warbles float through.
"(I Like) The Way You Love Me" (1998-2004) - Snippet of Michael singing a song idea into the phone; he beatboxes, then the actual song takes over in sync, and it's the one from the phone. It develops to a cool and easy R&B with ooo-woos, soft singing, piano taps, flute. This could be Bruno Mars. It is pleasant. Very little of the gasping vocal tic, which of course is not none.
"Monster" (2007) - Sound effects, scream sample. Beat starts up, sounds aggressive. This is like old stuff, which is good. The chorus says he's a monster, as in Hollywood and the media is portraying Michael as a monster. Some very early 2000s electronic rat-a-tats, like this was Linkin Park. OK song, but again zero subtlety. 50 Cent comes in for a guest rap verse while Michael HA HAs. Don't mention the year in your song unless you're going to release the song that year. Kind of sad that this has to show up on a posthumous swan-song album.
"Best of Joy" (2009) - R&B as lullaby. Well, more upbeat than that. Flute, acoustics. This maybe could be a song written by an artist for his child. Yep, explicit reference to "carry you around". Well, that's nice. "We are forever" is a pretty sad lyric to write the year that you die...and it transforms into "I am forever".
"Breaking News" (2007) - The newsreaders are talking about Michael again. Sigh. Fergawdsake, now he's straight using his own name in his lyrics. It's a bumpy beat. "Why is it strange that I would fall in love?" I guess talking about his marriage. Lot of trumpets on this, copious scratching.
"(I Can't Make It) Another Day" (1999-2001) - Well that's a dark title. Gong. Very electronic beepy beat. Michael croons the verse, cries out the chorus. Yet another switcheroo; "I can't make it another day...without your love". Lenny Kravitz busts out a guitar solo.
"Behind the Mask" (1982) - I once played this song as a DJ on Turntable, and the room flipped out. Crowd noise. Bouncy electronic beat. Michael sings out a little desperately. Kraftwerk computer voices back up the chorus. Nice bass. Sax solo, some more robot voice and crowd noise. Is this an early switcheroo song? Michael tells the girl to take off the mask, but I feel like we're not there yet.
"Much Too Soon" (1994) - Acoustic plucking, accordion, strings, glockenspiel? Michael sings softly and sadly. Harmonica solo with Spanish guitar. This is a switcheroo by accident of production, clearly present in its position because of the title.
Summary: As I said, I'm sad we got two Michael-as-victim songs out of ten on the posthumous release. But shit, that's the same ratio as Michael-as-victim albums so I guess it's a fair representation. These songs were just okay. There was nothing really terrible here. Heck, some could even have been better choices to fill in on the albums they were recorded alongside. The worst song is probably the one with Akon that sounds the most modern, which is an ironic thing to say because I have been faulting Michael for never really updating his sound after 1991.
Favorite overall song: "Behind the Mask" honestly was just okay, but it does sound like young Michael because it was. Favorite new-to-me song: "(I Like) The Way You Love Me" Shamone running count: 14 +2 guest.
Woo/oooo squeal running count: 185 + 44 posthumous
Tally of very insistent but unconvincing songs about MJ's qualities: 3.
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Post by ganews on Jul 19, 2018 21:12:25 GMT -5
Xscape (2014)  Pre-existing Prejudices This is posthumous album #2, our final selection, and what looks frankly like a blatant cash-in. It's under 35 minutes and was released in two forms, the one I'm about to review and a version that also includes a remix of every song. That is some quality stretching. Sorry Justin Timberlake fans, but this is the Michael show. The recording dates on this skip around more than last time, so who knows.
Songs"Love Never Felt So Good" (1983) - Strings fade in. A smooth beat with snaps and piano starts up. It's a straightforward disco, free and easy, the sort of thing we haven't heard in many years. Michael croons. Bongo.
"Chicago" (1999) - Duck quacks? Farty synth, electronic beats, tinkles. Boy meets girl. Michael croons while other Michael cries out, which is a solid dynamic. This is pretty decent, I can imagine 1999 frat parties dancing to it. This is what MJ should have been putting out at the time.
"Loving You" (1985-87) - Piano lead-in, to electronic orchestra bumps. The chorus is just funky; I mean, not funk, it's just interesting and I don't quite know how to classify this sound. It's a love song, but it's heavier than than standard R&B with big beats. This was recorded around Bad, it was maybe ahead of its time. Also good to put on at the party.
"A Place with No Name" (1998) - Claps, gasps, lots of big electronic warble. Then a beat starts rumbling. Snaps start snapping while Michael does a story song about his Jeep breaking down and meeting a woman. You guys, I think this album might be great. A synth-heavy sound like this was after it's time in 1998, but it's absolutely ahead of its time by a decade. If Michael had been actually releasing songs like this in the late 90s and 2000s he would have totally wrecked the curve for the kids blending electronics into their party songs. The lalalas sound like an R&B "Horse With No Name".
"Slave to the Rhythm" (1989-91) - Whip-crack, hoos for the first time, and a slick beat. Throwback synth adds to the flavor on the chorus. It's about a girl who can't stop dancing, except it's more like she's a slave to hard-work circumstance. Michael is a little too angry-sounding for this to be a party song.
"Do You Know Where Your Children Are" (1987-90) - Very electronic warble, lots of heehee, electronic slaps. This is not a save the world treacle like you might expect, this is strident pop music with a message. Weird synthy/distorted bridge. Man, this sound is ahead of its time too, give it another about dozen years before there were many electronic boy/girl pop duos making these sounds. Echo on the woo.
"Blue Gangsta" (1998-2001) - Foreboding cello. What if this had been a duet with Bjork? After prelude, the beats come in and even change themselves around in mini-breakdowns which kicks ass. This has little bursts of bass thump, and I want to hear this in my friend's car in high school pounding out of his subwoofer (which would have been 1998-2001 as well). If have no idea what the song is about. Michael sings a bit, yells a bit, backs himself up with a chorus.
"Xscape" (1999-2001) - Aw shit even more bass, I want to hear the trunk rattle off. This is a bit autobiographical but it is uncharacteristically subtle. These incisive violins are great. There's some long hoo-hoo. This keeps breaking itself down to more bare elements and building up again.
Summary: Ho-lee-shit, I have not been this blindsided by an unknown album since Prince's The Slaughterhouse; while that record and its sequel can only be heard on Tidal, you can listen to this album right now on YouTube. Stop reading this review right now and go do it. Literally every track on this album works, something I have said about very few Michael Jackson records. It blows my mind that these tracks were kept locked away when they could have done the world good by replacing any of the many Michael-as-victim songs on the last two albums released in his lifetime. Maybe it was just someone making the creative choice to pick songs that weren't crying crooners or rainbow sunshine, but dammit someone should have been doing that for decades. "Slave to the Rhythm" and "Do You Know Where Your Children Are" do public consciousness right. Oddly the opening disco track is out of place given all that follows. Favorite overall song: "Blue Gangsta", but it is a seriously tough choice in a good way. Favorite new-to-me song: all new Shamone running count: 14 +2 guest.
Woo/oooo squeal running count: 185 + 69 posthumous
Tally of very insistent but unconvincing songs about MJ's qualities: 3.
Next time: the final summary
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Post by ganews on Jul 21, 2018 10:56:21 GMT -5
Summary
Well, it's been fun for the most part. Kind of a strange discography to review, honestly. There's a reason that the best-of packaged with HIStory only covered as far back as Off the Wall. Those first four albums aren't terrible, sometimes they're even good, but it's a different thing from what 90% of people think of as Michael Jackson's music. Even the disco is really only there for most of Wall and bits of Thriller. It's kind of amazing that he was performing with the Jackson 5 into the 80s. There's no doubt that the made some real killers once he got off on his own. Even the save-the-world stuff isn't too bad, at least at first, though I wish he had stuck to more specific social commentaries (like "People Make the World Go 'Round" and "Jam") than generic "children are love" messages.
By far the most disappointing thing I discovered is that Michael's music really crawled up inside himself in the 90s and never came out while he was alive. The kid was abused; sad. The man was hounded by the press; unfortunate but that's kind of how it goes when you're a famous artist. I don't know, I wasn't there. What I do know is that my good will toward the man is run out by the exhausting number of tracks he laid out late in his career bemoaning his victimhood. Musically, it's just sad. He wasn't content to lay down a few awesome tracks that winked at the issue ("Scream"), he had to aggravate what otherwise were good songs (much of the rest of HIStory), even making personal attacks with violent insinuation ("D.S."). At the same time, he could have been releasing kick-ass songs that blew the late 90s away (tracks that became Xscape).
Past his death, the tragedy is that all literally-on-record pushback ensures that the scandals live forever in his music. He could have just stopped after Dangerous. And I just wrote all this and thought I was about done without mentioning more of MJ's talents. He was a pretty good singer. Not an all-time-great singer - he was actually better as a kid on those early albums - but he had ideas and he had style (to say the least). Finally having the kid serve as his own vocal backup was the best decision made in his career. Using other backup singers was understandable when he was 14 but increasingly a disservice as he got older. He greatest talent of all was to project emotion right through the speakers. That was fine until he ended up just being angry all the time.
By the numbers
Number of calls of shamone: 14 by the man himself, plus two spoken-word utterances by guest Chris Tucker
Number of cries of woo/oooo/hoo/woo-hooooo/etc.: 185 on the albums released during his life, plus another 69 on the posthumous releases. Good lord that's a lot. For some songs I basically had to count woos while typing my thoughts and then add to the running tally, and sometimes it can be subtle. I had no idea it would be so many. Fortunately I did not attempt to catalog the at-least-as-many cries of ow, hee-hees, gasps, and Jackson's many other vocal tics.
Number of very insistent but unconvincing songs about MJ's qualities: 3. Boy did I misjudge this one. Very few of Jackson's songs are particularly boastful. Most of them are very genuine, too much about himself as he is, if anything. Which leads us to...
Number of songs that act like they aren't about MJ but actually are: 5, if you include the bonus track "Leave Me Alone" from Bad. These are the switcheroo songs that going by title are so very clearly about Michael, but the lyrics pretend to have their own context.
Number of songs featuring Michael-as-victim: No, screw that, I'm not even going back to count these.
Number of song where Michael chokes up and cries: 3. Is that really all?
Final album rankings (not album singles rankings)
1. Bad (1987) 2. Thriller (1982) 3. Xscape (2014) 4. Dangerous (1991)
5. Off the Wall (1979) 6. Got to Be There (1972)
7. HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I (1995) 8. Forever, Michael (1975) 9. Michael (2010)
10. Invincible (2001) 11. Ben (1972)
12. Music & Me (1973)
Next time: because if you want for more readers and commenters on this white-bread forum, you've got to give the people what they like...Radiohead.
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dＬᵒ
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𝓐𝓻𝓮 𝓦𝓮 𝓒𝓸𝓸𝓵 𝓨𝓮𝓽?
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Post by dＬᵒ on Jul 23, 2018 1:03:41 GMT -5
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Post by ganews on Jul 23, 2018 9:25:57 GMT -5
Isn't that from the concert where Michael's hair caught fire and he spun on his heels to put it out? |
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